1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle door handle device, in more particular, to a vehicle door handle device provided with a door panel opened and closed by a manual operation of a door handle.
2. Related Art
As is well known, a vehicle door handle device for opening and closing a door panel by locking or unlocking a door locking mechanism of the door panel is built in a vehicle such as an automobile, etc.
In recent years, this type of vehicle door handle device provided with a function of electrically unlocking a door locking mechanism when an owner (a driver) comes close to a vehicle and electrically locking the door locking mechanism when the driver leaves the vehicle (a smart entry function) has been suggested in order to improve operability of a vehicle.
Such vehicle door handle device is also provided with a function of mechanically locking and unlocking, assuming the case that the electrical locking and unlocking are disabled.
This type of conventional vehicle door handle device provided with a door lock actuator for locking and unlocking by, e.g., switching on/off of an actuator link mechanism housed inside thereof is disclosed by JP-A-2002-129805.
The vehicle door handle device has a handle link mechanism for generating a pivotal motion by a pull-out (pivotal) operation of a door handle, a handle rod for generating a downward linear motion by the pivotal motion of the handle link mechanism, and a coupling lever mechanism for transmitting the linear motion of the handle rod to the above-mentioned actuator link mechanism.
In addition, the vehicle door handle device has a cylinder lock housed in a door handle and having a key rotor which pivots by a pivotal operation by inserting (letting) a regular key (a matching key) into a key insert hole opened at all times, a cylinder lock rod which pivots by a pivotal motion of the key rotor of the cylinder lock, and a key lever mechanism for transmitting the pivotal motion of the cylinder lock rod to the above-mentioned actuator link mechanism.
In such vehicle door handle device, when the key rotor pivots in one direction from a neutral position by an insertion and a subsequent pivotal operation of the matching key in the cylinder lock, the pivotal movement is transmitted to the key lever mechanism via the cylinder lock rod, on/off of the actuator link mechanism in a door lock actuator is switched by an actuation of the key lever mechanism, and the door lock mechanism is changed from a locked state into an unlocked state.
After this, when a door handle is operated in a direction to open a door panel, the pull-out (pivotal) operation of the door handle is transmitted to the handle rod via the handle link mechanism. When the handle rod is linearly moved downward by the pivotal operation of the door handle, the linear movement is transmitted to the actuator link mechanism via the coupling lever mechanism. When the actuator link mechanism is activated, the door panel is opened since the door locking mechanism is in the unlocked state.
On the other hand, when the key rotor pivots in another direction from the neutral position by an insertion and a subsequent pivotal operation of the matching key in the unlocked state of the door locking mechanism, the pivotal movement is transmitted to the key lever mechanism via the cylinder lock rod, then, the actuator link mechanism is activated by the motion of the key lever mechanism, and the door locking mechanism is changed from the unlocked state into the locked state.
However, according to the vehicle door handle device disclosed by JP-A-2002-129805, since the key insert hole of the cylinder lock is opened at all times, there is a problem that rainwater, etc., enters into the cylinder lock from the key insert hole and operation parts, etc., inside the cylinder lock are likely to deteriorate.